1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a leadframe, a fabricating method of a light emitting diode package using the leadframe and a light emitting diode package by the method, and more particularly, to a leadframe having a supporting part capable of fixing a heat sink to the leadframe before forming a package main body by an insert molding technique so as to align the heat sink and the leadframe, a fabricating method of a light emitting diode package using the leadframe and a light emitting diode package by the method.
2. Discussion of the Background
In order to use a light emitting diode (LED) as a light source for illumination, the LED is required to have luminous power of a few tens lumens. The luminous power of the LED is generally in proportion to input power. Accordingly, high luminous power can be obtained by increasing power input to the LED. However, the increase of the input power causes junction temperature of the LED to increase. The increase of the junction temperature of the LED results in decrease of photometric efficiency indicating a degree where input energy is converted into visible light. Therefore, the LED is required to have a structure for preventing the increase of the junction temperature of the LED due to the increase of the input power.
An LED package provided with such a structure has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,274,924(B1) (Title: Surface mounting LED package). According to the document, since an LED die is thermally coupled on a heat sink, the LED die can be maintained at a low junction temperature. Accordingly, relatively high input power is supplied to the LED die, so that high luminous power can be obtained.
However, since the conventional LED package is fabricated by forming a package main body and then inserting a heat sink into the package main body, there is a problem in that the heat sink may be easily separated from the package main body. Meanwhile, an LED package may be fabricated by aligning a heat sink and lead terminals and then forming a package main body for supporting the heat sink and the lead terminals through an insert molding technique. However, since the lead terminals and the heat sink are separated from one another in the conventional LED, it is difficult to align the lead terminals and the heat sink with each other.